The White Palace Harbor, Constantinople, July 10, 1639:
Athena looked at her brother Odysseus, the new Emperor of the Romans, who was overseeing the loading of materials, including his baggage, onto a ship for the transfer over to Asia. He was on his way to oversee training exercises for the western Anatolian tagmata, a common practice for him, although the first to be done while carrying the Imperial title.
The people of Constantinople had found it strange that there’d been no public funeral for Demetrios III, some complaining about the insult. That had only made Athena even more understand her father’s insistence that not even his corpse would go back to the City; he was done with it. Odysseus’ coronation as Emperor, along with Maria of Agra as his Empress, had gone well, with the ceremonies surrounding it marking Odysseus’ longest stay in Constantinople for years. But now that those were completed he was off again.
“Did you say goodbye to Mom?” she asked.
Odysseus turned and looked at her. “I did, just before now.”
“Good. She does like seeing you.”
“She’s free to visit me in the country.”
“So I assume you’re not going to back here anytime soon.”
“Nope. You have all the paperwork you need?” Odysseus had proclaimed her as Regent while he was out of the capital, with full authority to perform any acts or deeds she thought necessary. Athena nodded. “Good.”
He stepped forward and the two embraced, breaking the hug after a moment. “Don’t spend too much time here,” he said.
“I won’t.” The White Palace was situated where it caught the sea breezes which helped keep the air fresh, but they’d been unusually weak the last few days, meaning that the fetid stench of Constantinople in the summer was getting noticeable. The Sweet Waters had been developed originally as a retreat just to get away from the stink. And right now the whiff of human excrement on the air was…personally sensitive.
But there was more to it than just the smell. “This place murdered Father,” she said, voicing the thought they were both thinking, had been thinking, for a long time, but had never voiced aloud before. Now some of that might be blamed on Demetrios, who for all his brilliance wasn’t that good at delegating responsibility, and the accompanying stress, whether out of a sense of duty or from having more faith in his own competence as opposed to others, and so the great pressures of the position and the times had squeezed him down to nothing. On the other hand, it certainly felt like Constantinople had been actively making the pressure worse a lot of the time, and Athena was certainly overwhelmingly biased in favor of her father.
“It didn’t even have the decency to do it quickly. It just ground him up bit by bit, until nothing but a husk was left,” Odysseus added. He looked at her. “Do you need me to stay? I will for you. No one else, but I will for you.”
Athena smiled sadly. “No, that’s not necessary. But thank you.” She felt the same as Odysseus, perhaps quite not so viscerally, but she felt it. This was a place of power, but she’d seen firsthand the terrible price the power could demand. “I know you need to do this.”
“Are you sure need is the right word?”
“Yes. Your plan is the right one, no matter what others say. Maybe it’ll fail, but it should be at least tried. It’s at least different from doing the same-old thing that’s been done for a thousand years and more. And I know you; you need to do this to be true to yourself. Because if you don’t…” She didn’t finish the sentence; they both knew what followed: you’ll end up like father.
“Thank you.” Odysseus looked behind him. The loading of the boat was complete and the men were clearly waiting for him. The siblings embraced again. “Take care of yourself.”
“You too. Peace be with you.”
“Peace be with you.”
* * *
1639-41: The first years of Odysseus’ reign are quiet, fortunately for the Romans. The economy by mid-1639 is done contracting but growth is non-existent. Brigandage, which has always been at least a background hum due to the many remote and rugged landscapes available for shelter across the Empire, ticks up. This has an effect of shifting the economic pain as the brigands come from the cities, towns, and countryside tightly linked with the urban areas. These were the ones who were hit hardest by the crash. However to operate as brigands they move to more remote and rural areas which are less well-patrolled. Not as closely linked to the monetary economy, these areas had not been hurt as badly but now they suffer from brigand depredations. Notably the romantic image of the klepht is not common in the areas where they most often operated.
Hunting down brigands is useful training for the army and Odysseus incorporates that into the training exercises he conducts. Odysseus wants to resume the war with Ibrahim as soon as the truce expires but knows that due to the Empire’s finances, vast great hosts are not available. He is fighting this with Eternal War level resources, meaning one big field army and that’s pretty much it. So he works to make the one field army as effective and dangerous as he can, with lots of drilling and training, shuffling officers and units to get the most capable and veteran leaders, soldiers, and formations.
One example is the outfitting of those units detailed to go east with the captured Triune 15-pounders, magnificent pieces that are as light and maneuverable as the Roman 12-pounders but with greater range, accuracy, and firepower. Everyone familiar with their work agrees that the Triunes make the best cannon.
One cost-saving measure involves the Polish cavalry promised to Roman service in the Treaty of Kiev in 1635 in exchange for a Roman guarantee of Polish borders. In 1635 that had seemed like a reasonable deal from Constantinople’s perspective; in 1640 it sounds like an unnecessary extravagance. The Roman exchequer doesn’t want the expense of paying and provisioning 4000 Polish heavy cavalry (the most expensive, by far, troop type) and neither Athena nor Odysseus really want to have to guarantee Polish borders. So after negotiations with the Polish ambassador it is agreed to nullify those clauses of the treaty: no border guarantees and no Polish cavalry.
Both sides approve of this change. The Roman reasons have already been given but Queen Alexandra is also pleased. She’d never placed that much faith in the Roman guarantee given Constantinople’s distance, hence the defensive alliance with Bohemia and Hungary that she considered far more tangible. She also put out feelers to the Russians. Thus in losing the Roman guarantee, she wasn’t really losing anything.
And in not having to send Polish cavalry, she was gaining a great deal, more than just the horsemen themselves. She and the Poles had swallowed the cession of Galicia in 1635 because they had to, but the bitter meal turned their stomachs. The loss of Casimir’s conquests had been expected and accepted, but Galicia was historic Polish land and inhabited by many Polish-speakers. It was not acceptable that it be ruled by Vlachs.
Polish landlords had hardly treated the Polish and Ruthenian peasantry well but their new Vlach replacements did not share the peasants’ language, culture, or religion, and treated them even worse than the Polish landlords as well. By 1640 peasant flight was still just a trickle but a growing problem as Galician peasants fled for better conditions across the border. Polish-speakers made for Poland where the local landlords were quite happy for more laborers and not interested in meeting angry Vlach demands for extradition.
Ruthenian-speakers usually made their way east into Lithuania or Scythia, both of which were quite happy to accept them. For ideological reasons, the Russians were even more annoyed by Vlach actions than the Poles. The independent-minded Russian peasantry did not care one bit for the image of peasants being run down and dragged back to horrible near-slavery conditions. Several Vlach serf-catchers who found themselves on the wrong side of the border were murdered.
Alexandra’s prestige and authority had suffered because she was the one that signed the cession. Providing troops for the Romans who’d backed the cession was an additional and damaging humiliation and by negotiating that away, Alexandra helped make up the damage in prestige she’d suffered earlier. She really needed that boost to maintain her position as Regent. Attacking Galicia would’ve been a very popular move, but not a feasible one. Henri II was still a threat in the west and Alexandra knew that Poland needed at least one Roman-peer power to back her up, which wasn’t an option now. Prior to the change her refusal to budge on this topic had been viewed by many as weakness, but with it many of the greats of Poland reconsidered their opinion and now recognized the wisdom of her planning.
Another factor boosting her position in 1640 is the improved response to Polish feelers from the Russians. To explain that requires pivoting momentarily to the Triple Monarchy.
Henri II’s victory over the Lotharingians had been a great victory, for the French. The English saw very little for their efforts, with their rumblings of discontent soon making themselves felt in King’s Harbor. To mitigate them, Henri first transfers control of the Viceroyalty of Sutanuti from the Kingdom of France to the Kingdom of England. The sizeable array of plum positions this offers for profit, prestige, and power to English notables goes a long way to smooth over ruffled feathers.
That has nothing to do with Russia or Poland. However the second action is that Henri backs English demands regarding a new trade treaty in the works between the Triple Monarchy and the Russians. Henri had initially pushed this treaty as a way of improving relations with the Russians, but the need to conciliate English public opinion trumps that.
Novgorod, eager to revive itself as a commercial powerhouse, had been willing to concede substantial benefits to Triune merchants in the agreement to ensure a strong exchange of goods. However the Russians had insisted on equal reciprocal rights for their merchants in Triune territory. Due to the minuscule size of the Russian merchant marine it is extremely doubtful that many, if any, Russian merchants would take advantage of such rights, but it is desired simply as a matter of pride, as an assertion of equality.
Equality with the Russians is absolutely unacceptable to the English, who reject such terms as ‘quite impertinent’. [1] Henri reluctantly backs this because he needs to in order to conciliate the English, and with that backing the trade treaty goes through without reciprocal rights for Russian merchants. But the goal of improving Triune-Russian relations is wrecked. In fact it is counter-productive as many Russians are now incensed at the Triune insult and more open to Alexandra’s and Ottokar’s warnings about the Triunes and proposals to ‘curb their unbearable insolence’.
However neither Athena nor Odysseus are interested in the stirrings in the north. They are simply not that important right now. In February 1641, the truce with Ibrahim expires. It is time to march east.
“Sing, Muses, of the wanderings of Odysseus…”
[1] This is taken from OTL. When Elizabethan English were negotiating trade terms with the Muscovy of Ivan IV, they considered Russian desire for reciprocal rights (for reasons of equality and not because it was likely that non-existent Russian merchantmen would be docking in the Thames) to be impertinent.
